Wednesday, 13 December 2006

responsible tourism conference offers free flights to delegates

The 2007 conference of the Institute of Travel Management (ITM) will be taking as its theme Responsible Tourism Management. The annual conference attracts the industry’s biggest movers and shakers and 2007 will see a key note speech from Jonathan Porritt of Forum for the Future, a leading sustainable development think tank.

So why have they got it all wrong?

For the simple reason that all delegates are offered free flights to the Edinburgh based conference courtesy of sponsorship deals with the likes of BMI, FlyBe and British Airways. Is Edinburgh so unreachable by train?

When questioned with this seemingly paradoxical situation, the response from the conference organisers was as follows:

“As some delegates will be travelling from the south of England it may not be feasible time wise for all delegates to travel via train which is why there is an alternative offered to those who will be coming from further a field.”

It would appear that a 4 and a half hour journey from London is just too much for the busy modern executive.

At the moment the tourism industry is willing to preach to consumers about responsible travel but not take on board any of this practice in its working life. When will people realise it's as important HOW you get as what you do while you're there.

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About Laura

Laura is the founder of ecoescape. ecoescape is an online and offline directory of green places to stay and visit in the UK and beyond. Laura set up ecoescape in 2006 on a shoe-string and in 2008 co-wrote two eco-travel guides to the UK and Ireland. Her website is found at www.ecoescape.org.